Soul at the White Heat: Inspiration, Obsession, and the Writing Life

This collection of essays from the award-winning author Oates ranges from observations on the writing life to critical reviews of classic and contemporary works. Additional pieces include commentary on the film The Fighter and details of a visit to San Quentin prison. The selection of 33 previously published essays encompasses a wide range of topics with Oates's pinpoint focus. "Writing Life" essays detail the demise of the 3-D book in spite of her claim that most authors write because of their love of physical books and the stories and information they contain. Oates considers Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch and Mead's lifelong admiration for George Eliot. Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life is acknowledged for its literary craft for applying life to art. Observations on Larry McMurtry's The Last Kind Words Saloon recognize McMurtry's inclusion of "sharp-tongued wives and 'whores'" who match the men in the rough Texas environment. Additional authors critiqued include Jeanette Winterson, Anne Tyler, Zadie Smith, Lucia Berlin, J.M. Coetzee, and Paul Auster, among others, and, with a nod to Oates's love of boxing, Mike Tyson.